Brand identity is related to what people think about your company and your products and services. It’s everywhere: websites, advertising, product packaging, business cards, and so on.
Brand identity is made of several elements defining your company’s values and mission. This is what makes your client to recognize you right away from your competitors and associate your brand with your products and services.
On the other hand, this will also set you apart from your competitors. It also helps you to create a strong connection with your clients, generates customer loyalty and defines how your brand is perceived.
Do you need to create or re-design your brand identity? Then this post is for you. Keep reading!
What is brand identity?
Brand identity is made up of a set of elements that form a brand, tell what your values are and make it unique in the eyes of consumers. In short, brand identity is the personality of your company, it refers rather to the traits, values and elements that define it and that go far beyond a logo.
A brand is a set of characteristics, which distinguishes one organization from another. A brand usually consists of a name, a slogan, a logo or symbol, a design, a brand voice, etc….
Brand identity, therefore, is the aspect of branding that focuses on the personality of your brand, as well as the values it conveys to customers.
What does Brand Identity include?
Brand Identity includes much more than a color palette and a logo:
- Logo
- Typography
- Photography
- Color palette
- Illustrations
- Iconography
- Web design
- Data visualization
- Interactive elements
- Design system
- Videos
- Multimedia files
All these items should look and feel according to your Brand Identity, and reflect a unified image to your customers.
What makes a successful Brand Identity?
Brand identity should work both for your internal team as well as for your clients, suppliers and other people interacting with it. Thus, you should make sure your brand identity is:
- Different: Your brand must be different from your competitors and catch people’s attention
- Memorable: Your brand should have a great visual impact on people, so it’s hard to forget
- Scalable: Your brand should be able to grow and evolve with time, and according to your business growth.
- Easy to apply: Designers shouldn’t struggle to apply your brand identity to corporate pieces like advertising, flyers, business cards, and so on.
6 elements to create your Brand Identity
If you want to create or re-design your Brand Identity, keep in mind these 6 elements:
1. Who are you as a brand?
You should truly know who you are as a brand, and what do you want to achieve with your company. You should have defined:
- Your mission as a company or as a brand
- Your values as a company or as a brand
- Your brand’s personality, and how do you want to relate to your clients
- How you’re different from your competitors
- How you’re going to communicate with clients, competitors, suppliers and people
Answering these questions will give you your brand’s DNA. This is your brand’s core and fundamentals.
2. Brand design
Design will build your brand identity and will set it apart from others. Brand construction blocks are the foundations for design, and they are the following:
- Typography: It’s the type of font you choose for your brand, to communicate your personality, values and mission. You should choose one be very carefully. There are four main typographies styles:
- Serif Fonts: They are classic fonts, and have little details at the end of each letter. If you want your brand to look trustworthy and traditional, fonts like Times New Roman or Garamond are for you.
- Sans Serif Fonts: These fonts have straight borders and don’t have those little details that Serif Fonts have. They’re perfect for elegant or modern brands. Helvetica is one of these fonts.
- Cursive Fonts: They emulate cursive handwriting, and are perfect to add some luxury or feminine touch to brands. Pacific is one of these fonts.
- Screen Fonts: These fonts have very special and unique elements, like unusually-shaped letters, contours, shadows, etc.
- Color Palette: Colors are necessary and fundamental for your brand. Your brand’s colors will have a great impact on how your audience perceives your company. So, we recommend you read a bit about the psychology of colors, and choose the right ones for your brand, according to its personality, your audience and your products or services.
- Shapes and Forms: These elements build up your brand, and must be aligned with your brand’s personality and your main audience. There are different styles:
- Straight borders: Like squares, rectangles and triangles, make people think about strength and efficiency.
- Round borders: Like circles, ovals and ellipses, make people think about warmth and closeness.
- Straight lines: Vertical straight lines suggest masculinity and strength, while horizontal straight lines suggest tranquility and soft vibrations.
3. Logo
Your logo is a key element for your Brand Identity. It’s how people will get to know your company, your products and services. You want it to be memorable and to follow these features:
- Clearly communicates who you are and what your values are
- It’s visually attractive, well-designed and catches attention
- It’s atemporal, which means your logo could live plenty of years without looking “old”
- Causes positive feelings on your target audience
4. Product Packaging
If you sell physical objects or things, your product packaging is very important. Good packaging will attract new customers, will improve their shopping experience and will make your products look amazing.
A well-designed package not only makes your product more visually appealing, but can also be a way to communicate your brand values and purpose.
5. Website
Your brand must have a website on its own. Many customers today always look up for products, services or brand on the internet, and you want to have a place to receive them and give them all the information they need to buy from you.
It doesn’t matter if you already are in social media, if you don’t have an online store or if you are a local brand, your company must have a well-designed and complete website to improve your brand’s image and positioning.
6. Digital Communications
Your brand should look amazing in both traditional and digital environments, like E-mail, Social Media and Digital Campaigns.
E-mail is an effective way to grow and interact with your clients. You should create some amazing designs and templates for your communications to stand out from the other e-mails people receive on a daily basis.
Your brand’s social media should be designed carefully, and you should have a consistent look and feel across your different accounts. Your posts, stories, contents and videos should have a graphic line to offer a unique visual experience.
Conclusion
Brand identity is a must have to differentiate yourself from your competitors and show what your brand represents. Having a well-defined brand identity will make your brand be perceived in a positive way.
If you’d like some help to create or redesign your brand identity, don’t hesitate to contact us! We can help you design your company’s brand identity, from your logo and brand guidelines to your branding material and visual communications.